Among other things, the event will showcase the Dushanbe’s tea-based cocktail program. During an event Wednesday at the tea house, general manager Kasi Tenborg made a whiskey sour, using a tangerine herbal tea in the preparation. I have lost my taste for whisky, but this was a mighty fine drink.

At Wednesday’s event, too, Lenny Martinelli, who owns the restaurant in the tea house and a host of restaurants in Boulder and Louisville, talked about cooking with tea. He’s an engaging guy, and he will teach a class on cooking with tea at the festival. Other classes delve into Taiwanese oolong, sink into the Japanese tea ceremony, and much more. If you dig tea, it’s worth checking out.

It gives you an excuse, too, to hang out in the Dushanbe Tea House, which was built in Tajikistan and moved to Boulder. The city owns the building, and Martinelli and his wife Sara, who organizes the festival, run the restaurant.